The People's Hope
by Aliit Vodeson
Summary: Kad is the son of a clone and a Jedi General. Mirila is a slave with no knowledge of her parents. He been trained since birth as a jedi and a bounty hunter. She has never been allowed to hold a weapon in her life. Yet some how, these two will be brought together by a common threat. Set 4 years before New Hope. Image from a comic, shows Ailyn Vel, Sintas Vel and Boba Fett.
1. Author

**Author's Note**

I do not own any Star Wars characters, plot or settings. This story is purely for fun and fellow fan enjoyment.

I will update the story as often as I can and I post right when the chapter is done. Right now I'm working on expanding the first 6 chapters and adding onto them. When I update the story, I'll post on here saying which chapter has been changed and when that happened.

July 24th: prolog added


	2. Prolog

Etain looked down at the small boy running in the grass, waving a stick around his head. His laughter was like sweet music to her ears, feeding her soul. The boy tripped over a rock and went tumbling down onto the ground. Her arms ached to reach out, pull him up and wipe the dirt from his face. But she held back. He had plenty of family to do that for him.

From above, the running figure looked like another stick like the one the boy held. The old woman reached the boy and gently wiped his face with her sleeve. "Are you alright Kad" asked the elderly Kaminoan. Kad nodded and took off through the grass again. The elderly figure straightened and watched him run. Etain felt a twang of jealousy. She would never be able to hold her son like that, to wipe tears away and tell him that everything would be alright.

As if the old woman had heard her thoughts, she looked up into the sky and into Etain's face. Etain felt the softest touch of another mind brush against her's. The old woman smiled and waved. In her mind, Etain felt the reasuring touch of other woman's mind. _He will be fine. Bardan and I have been teaching him. Go in peace._

Though she had never been the most adept mind speaker, Etain sent her own words across the bond. _Thank you. You take such good care of him._

_I must. He is our hope for the future._

Etain nodded to herself. The old woman was right. Etain sent one last look at her son, and then let go of her last hold on the living world. Her force ghost floated away in the wind as she became one at last with the living force.


	3. Beloved Son

Jaing shock his head at the small ship. "I can't believe you paid for that heap of junk. Just look at it, Kad'ike. You won't be able to fit anything in it."

Kad stood by his Uncle Jaing's side on the wet grass. "But she'll go point six past light speed Ba'vodu. And I think I can modify the laser cannons for a larger fire power." Kad was bouncing up and down with excitement.

Laughing to himself, Jaing put a hand on Kad's shoulder. "Calm down ad'ike. You'll 17 for goodness sakes, you've owned other ships before." Jaing walked toward the small fighter and stroked a hand along it. "The paint job will need redoing, maybe even a complete overhaul."

"But I've never bought a ship with my own money before. Everything else has been something one of you guys gave me. And point 6 with those laser cannons!"

Jaing nodded, still looking down at the fighter. "What's her name?"

"_Cyare__Ratiin_."

_Beloved__Always_. "You name her that?"

"Yeah." Kad looked down and shuffled his feet.

Jaing finished his circuit around the ship and walked back to his nephew's side. Clapping Kad on the back, he said "I like the name. But I'm not sold on the ship overall."

Kad was opening his mouth to speak when another one of his uncles, Barden, came out of the house behind them. Kad ran out of Jaing's grip and up to Barden. "Ba'vodu, look at her! It's she beautiful?"

Barden ruffled Kad's hair. For someone who was 17, already an adult, Kad acted like a little kid at the fair for the first time. Kad enjoyed acting like this, the silly little orphan boy. Of course, he wasn't really an orphan, not when he'd been formally adopted by Ba'buir when he was 6, just after his father had died. But Kad liked been the joker of the clan, the little kid who got in every body's way, even though he wasn't a little kid any more.

Barden looked at _Cyare__Ratiin_ much the same way Jaing had, running his hand up and down the dented body work, opening the cockpit hatch to fiddle with the controls, even ducking under the body to look at the small laser cannons built into the framework. Finally he stood up and patted Kad's back. "She'll do you well ad'ike. She's still going to need some work before she's space worthy."

"I know, and I was thinking that maybe you could help with the laser cannons. They don't have much power fight now, but looking at them, I think I can feed some of the excess shielding power to them."

"That's my boy." Jaing clapped Kad hard in the back. "Why run when you can just shoot them?" All three of them laughed. Jaing waved Kad into the house. "Let's go look for some proper wiring. I think there's some in the back room."

Aunt Laseema called from the kitchen as they walked by. "Jaing, you promised you go to Enceri to see about some new knifes for me." Jaing sighed and kept walking. Laseema came out of the kitchen. "Jaing, you promise." She waved a finger at him.

"Oh, alright." Jaing turned and walked back down the hall way. When he was out of sight, both Kad and Barden started laughing. Laseema's lips turned up in a smile.

"How about at little bit of sparring before dinner Kad'ike?" Barden asked him. "We haven't had a go in days."

"Sure Ba'vodu. Outside?"

Barden raised a single eyebrow at him. "You didn't do so well last time we sparred on wet grass."

"That's why I need to practice Ba'vodu. Please?" Kad remembered the bruises he'd gotten from landing on the ground, and shuddered inwardly. He hoped Barden hadn't picked that up in the force. "Please?"

"Oh, all right. But if you fall again, don't go whining to Kal'buir." Barden used the nicknamed they'd given Ba'buir back before Kad was born. Papa Kal. Technically, Kad could call him Buir, father, since he'd been adopted by him. But Kad preferred sticking with grandfather. "Maybe Scout will join us."

Kad raced to his room to put on his practice armour. It was lighter than real armour, but still blocked a lightsaber. Striping off his belt and boots, he carefully strapped the armoured plates on top of his clothes. He'd need the extra padding his day clothes gave him. When the armour was fully on, he took the lightsaber from his belt and clipped it onto his armour.

Barden was waiting for him when he got to the back door. "Scout's busy, but she might join us later." Barden said as they walked out into the yard. Kad flicked on his lightsaber and balanced his feet on the grass. Barden did the same. "And guard" Barden yelled as he jumped into the air toward Kad.


	4. Strangers In Armour

Merila felt her white skin freeze over. The engines of the large slaver ship had shuddered to a stop. Over the months she had been kept in the large cargo hold had taught her that the only time the engines stopped when they were in port. Soon the slave masters would come in and draw out the slaves they thought would make the best sale on whatever planet they were on at that moment. Merila shrank back, trying to make herself look small amongst the other slaves. She hated being on the ship, but she didn't want to be sold. Not ever. At least on the ship there wasn't any masters with wandering hands or ladies with fast fists.

But this time no slave masters came into the hold. The other slaves around her began to mutter. Then the door to the cargo hold burst open, knocking the slaves nearest it over on the floor. A large bellied man who had to have been fresh caught nearly landed on Marila. She sprang to her feet without thinking. And looked up into a black, t-slit helmet.

She stepped back, tripping on whoever was behind her, but an armoured gloved snaked out faster than she could see and gripped her arm hard. It yanked her forward until she was nearly touching heads with the helmet. A hand traced slowly down her cheek, roughly caressing her lower forehead where she had a small blue tattoo. Marila flinched back but the hand on her arm gripped her tighter, keeping her in place.

A rough man's voice spoke from the helmet. "I'll keep this one. Take any promising ones with you." The hand forced her to turn around, pushing to her the door. Other helmeted figures were wandering around the cargo hold, grabbing the slaves roughly up to eye height, then dropping them back to the floor. A body pressed on her from behind, forcing her to walk. She could feel cold metal through the light shift she'd been given when she was sold to the traders. "Move it" the voice said in her ear.

Merila shuffled forward. The body pushed her again. Merila's legs, so unused to walking after the months in the hold gave way underneath the pressure. She tried to stand, using her hands to push off the metal floor, but she fell down again. The man behind her grabbed her with one arm around the waist and clenched her to his armoured chest. "Stupid slaves" she heard him mutter as he stepped over one of the slaves his companions had already shoved aside.

One of them, a man by the looks of it, dressed in blood red armour with a scull of some sort painted in black on his shoulder came over as they reached the door. "She's a pretty one you got there. Pity the rest aren't of the same stock."

"Nothing worth keeping then?" It was less of a question than a statement.

"Nothing worth the cost of feeding and moving them. Looks like we picked the wrong ship to hit this time Klin."

"Then kill them all." The other man waved a hand to the other armoured figures standing around the hold who drew guns and pointed them at the slaves huddled on the cold metal deck. Merila and whoever held her had barely reached the door before they began to fire. Slaves screamed out in agony as red hot blasts from the blasters torn through they're flesh.

Merila closed her eyes and sent a prayer to the gods of the underworld to keep the spirits of the dead safe. But no tears ran from her eyes. At least they wouldn't face the horrors she could only guess were waiting for her, as slave to these strange armoured men.

He shoved her to the floor once he had carried her through the door. Merila rolled onto her back, bracing herself from the worst when she realised he had drawn his baster and was aiming it down at her. She froze, her sweaty palms flat against the deck. The black red circle of the firing tube was pointed right at the center of her face. She couldn't breathe. Had he taken her out of that cesspit of a room just to shoot her here?

"Crawl." Merila hardly heard him. "I said crawl girly. I ain't carrying you." Merila slowly rolled back onto her stomach, not wanting to take her eyes of the gun in his hands, but knowing that her life depended on her doing as her ordered. Slowly she dragged her palms across the deck and pulled her lifeless legs along behind her. Merila thought she heard the man chuckle but she dared not to turn around to check.

Heavy boots echoed on the metal floor. "There any reason you keeping a cripple Kiln? It won't be much use." It was the same man who'd told him that there weren't any other slaves worth keeping back in the hold. "Might as well shoot it now, put it down."

The one who had grabbed her snarled at him. "I know that, but it can walk. It got up quick enough back there, it's just a regular weakling. Work at the farm will toughen it up fast enough." A hard metal object jarred her hard in her lower leg. Marila guessed it was an armoured boot. "Stop." Merila did as the voice ordered. "It listens to orders well enough."

"So it does Kiln. But the others won't like the dead weight."

Kiln, Merila guessed that's what his name was since the other man kept calling him that, laughed a little. "They'll deal with the dead weight. You've checked the rest of the ship?"

"Nothing but the crew Kiln. They're dead now."

Kiln gave what sounded like a sigh. "No other holds?"

"None but this one. Even the credits aren't much. This ship didn't do very well in the last port they visited I guess."

"Seems so. Tell the others to wrap it up and get back to their ships. We'll leave at the quarter hour." Metal boots walking away. "Now you. Can you walk or not?" Merila was frozen with fear. Kiln kicked her in her stomach. "Now girly. Can you even speak?"

Merila winced from the blow. She sucked in her breathe and tried to speak. "I haven't in..." Her dry voice failed her. She swallowed and tried again. "Haven't walked in months. They kept me chained down there."

He kicked her again, in the same spot. She rolled away a little instinctively, wincing from the pain in her side and legs. "Don't give me the pity stories. If you can't walk, crawl." Merila began to pull her arms forward again, trying to block out the pain. Behind her, metal boots walked along, slowly at her pace. Merila heard a strange sound as she struggled along the floor. He was laughing at her. Laughing at her as she struggled in pain. What kind of monsters were these people?


	5. Death's Revenge

Kad dropped _Cyare Ratiin_ out of hyperspace. He sensed something out there. Fear and death mingled together. It screamed at him in the force. He reached out, trying to find out what had called out so loudly at him. There. From the large cargo ship he could see on his scanners, sitting still in the distance. He lit up the jets and steered in toward the cargo ship.

It was only when he got closer that he could see the battle scars on the ship's hull. Kad hit a small button next the tactical screen and the view switched. An energy readout of the cargo ship appeared. She was dead in space. No engine power, no navigational jets, all generators dead. Kad let _Cyare Ratiin_ continue on her course and reached out in the force trying to find how many life forms were on the dead ship.

He couldn't find any. The ship was not only dead in ship, but whoever had been piloting her was dead or gone. Kad sank back in his chair. Given the battle scars that he could see plainly on the ship, dead was the more likely. But who would attack a slave ship? It was madness. There were so very few places left in the galaxy that allowed slavery, given the rise in power of the Empire. As the Empire spread out ward, more systems came under their control and slavery was replaced with servitude to the Empire. But this far out from Coruscant, the Empire had little reach.

The computer bleeped. Kad looked down. The tactical search had found a small group of energy trail headed away from the cargo ship. They were fading fast though. "Escape pods?" Kad wondered to himself. "Even if I found them, there's no room on here for others." Kad laughed at his own silliness. He had to try, if only to help the survivors know that he would bring help. He fired up his jets again and took off following the energy trails.

They faded as he followed, the energy melding with the rest of space. But Kad reached out in the force and kept following the trail of fear and hate. Suddenly, it was gone. Nothing left from him to follow. "Impossible. Escape pods don't have hyperdrives." He set the tactical computer for another scan. When it turned up nothing, he pressed it again and again. Still nothing. "Impossible. Where could they have gone?"

He set the course for home again and was about to enter hyperspace when the computer beeped. There was a ship bearing down on him, fast. Kad did a double take. The energy drives matched the drive signatures he had picked up around the cargo ship. He hadn't be following the survivors, he had been following the attackers.

The ship speeding toward him was large, smaller than the cargo ship but larger than a standard freighter. The transponder code labeled her as _Death's Revenge._ "Lovely." Said Kad to himself. "Such a nice name."

The computer beeped again. Two fighters with weapons at the ready were coming at him from the rear. While he watched, a fourth dropped out of hyperspace to come at him from the side. It too readied it's weapons as it sped toward Kad. The four ships angled around him so that he had four sets of laser guns aimed right at him and no way out without being blasted.

"Kriffling!" Kad swore fluently in mando'a. "Ba'buir won't be happy about this."

The comlink sputtered to life. "Power down your guns and tie your nav computer to mine. Don't try any funny tricks." Kad couldn't place the accent, but it sounded similar to Ba'buir's.. Rough and tumble but with polished grammar. "Do it now." Kad did. People with blasters tend to get their way, as Ba'buir would say. But Kad did have a couple of tricks up his sleeves for later, once he found out who these strange ships belonged to.

Kad opened a small hidden compartment in the framework of the fight. Carefully, he let his lightsaber slide into it and clipped the compartment shut. It wouldn't do well for people to that he had Jedi training, especially if they were willing to turn him into the Empire. Jedi didn't do so well with the Empire in power. "Linking now." Fingers sliding across the screen, he linked his nav computer with _Death's Revenge_ opposite him. "Linked."

The com crackled but whoever was on the other end didn't say anything. _Cyare Ratiin_ lurched underneath him, carried forward by electronic orders from nav computer on the other end of the link. Kad sighed. Whenever he got himself into these situations, Ba'buir had a lot to say when he got back home. Kad could hear him in his mind. "_I never did these sorts of things when I was your age. You're better than this Kad'ike. Act it._" Kad sighed again. Ba'buir would give him that lecture AGAIN when he got home.

As _Cyare Ratiin_ drew up in his view screen, the three fighters which had surrounded him as drew up, taking the flanks of the one in front of him. The fear that he had followed from the broken cargo ship was present again, though he couldn't pin point it down to a single ship. Kad tried to focus in the force, reaching out with everything he had learned. Nothing. Just that over whelming feeling of fear and hatred.

_Cyare Ratiin_ slammed against _Death's Revenge._ Clearly whoever was steering it was new to the fine art of nav-link docking. Kad had to chuckle. Whoever these people were, they had not been doing it for long. Any pirate, bounty hunter or slave trader worth their weight in gold learns how to do a proper nav-link docking quickly. Fail to learn, and you risk blowing the target and yourself to bits.

The hatch open and a blaster mussel shoved into the cockpit. "Out." Kad raised himself up through the access hatch, the blaster levelled at him the entire time. He climbed out onto a plain metal deck. Slowly, checking both with his HUD and the force for more blasters, Kad got to his feet. A few feet away a humanoid in full mando'a armour stood with a blaster held loosely in his right hand and a young girl with the other. She wasn't human, but Kad couldn't place her species. Her white skin was marred with scars, old and new. Two blue tattoos stood out on her cheekbones. She was dressed in nothing but rags that barely covered her upper body.

And in the force, the girl was a blend of emotions. Kad reached out to her, trying to sooth her. Of course, it probably didn't help that he was dressed in full mando'a armour like her captor, but he hoped it helped her. She flinched, both in the force and physically. Kad frowned. He hadn't ever caused that reaction when he calmed people in the force. Then again, he hadn't done it that often.

His attention returned to the figure holding her. "So, we accidentally caught ourselves a fellow mando." It was a man's voice, the same one that had spoken to Kad through the comlink. He removed his helmet, clipping it to his belt beside the holster for his blaster. Slowly, as if the man was afraid to let it out of his hand, he let the blaster return to it's normal place on his hip as well. "Sorry about that. You should have identified yourself."

Kad shrugged. "Ba'buir always told me not to argue with people holding blasters at me."

The man laughed. "Sounds like a wise man your Ba'buir." He held out a gloved hand.

Kad shock it. He noted with some shock that the man was wearing shuk'orok, chrushgaunts, on both hands. Interesting. "He is. And he'll lecture me about this when I get home." Kad did the polite thing and removed his helmet as well.

The other man was scarred. Kad was used to seeing his Ba'uir's and uncle's battle scars, but this man shocked him. Puffed red scars ran all down his cheek and forehead. His nose was broken in several places and his mouth gave the appearance of twisting upward into a strange smile.

"Kiln Verskin."

"Kad Skirata."

"Skirata eh? Any relation to Kal Skirata?"

"My ba'buir." The girl was staring at him with pure fear in her eyes. Kad could feel her terror through the force, screaming out at him.

"Good man. You're lucky to know him." Kad nodded his thanks for the compliment and made a mental note to ask Ba'buir who Kiln Verskin was when he got home. "So what's the grandson of Sargent Kal doing out here in the outer rim?"

"Looking for a friend of my father. He disappeared just before the Empire started conquering the rest of the universe."

"Well, we don't come across many other folk around these parts, but if you tell me the name, I'll keep my eye out."

"Sev, don't know what last name he might be using. Last time we talked to him, he was going by Sev Vauson."

"Sev Vauson. Got it. Anything for Kal Skirata."


	6. That Feeling

Merila stared at the boy in the armour. He seemed on easy terms with Kiln, but Kiln had opened up the conversation with pulling a blaster on this boy. But they dressed the same way, in the strange metal armour. Merila was confused and scared. It had only been less than a day since these men had attacked the slave ship, but it had been hours of hell. She had been kicked, slapped, pushed and laughed at this whole time. It seemed they were less looking for a slave and more for someone to hurt.

When the boy had climbed out of his ship, Merila had felt something wrap around her, touching her mind. She'd flinched back, trying out get away from whatever had been pushing at her. She'd been stopped by Kiln's hard fingers around her arm. Thankfully, the feeling had gone away as soon as it had come. Merila shivered. She was still wearing her thin rags, and the docking bay was freezing cold.

The two were talking like they were old friends. Merila noticed that the boy was young, only around 19. His black hair hung around his shoulder, a little ruffled from his helmet but overall still neat. His hands were hanging loosely by his sides, one finger on each stuck into a belt loop. Merila could see several knifes hanging in sheathes around his waist, and two different blasters. Like her captors, this boy was armed to the teeth.

He introduced himself as Kad Skirata. _What kind of name is that_? Merila wondered. He spoke with a soft accent, pronouncing every word with careful neatness. He looked like a simple farm boy, someone who'd be at home clearing up after the nerf herds. But he wasn't a farm boy. He was a fighter, probably a murderer like the man holding her arm now.

"Anything for Kal Skirata." Kiln finished saying. Merila realised the the boy was looking at her, staring at her. His dark brown eyes were boring into her, piercing into her soul. Again, Merila felt that strange feeling around her, of something pushing at her mind. _Could it be that boy_? After several seconds, the boy, Kad, looked away from her. Merila relaxed. The strange feeling around her mind had gone away as well.

Hard fingers tugged on her arm. Kiln was beckoning to Kad. "If you were looking for this friend of yours, what were doing out here? Surely didn't think he'd be on the slave ship back there?"

Kad visibly winced. Merila noted that his fingers had curled into fists. Maybe he didn't share the same feelings about slavery as Kiln did. "I had a malfunction with my hyperdrive." Merila could tell that he was lying, his eyes not looking at Kiln. "I'd just finished repairing it when you guys dropped down on me."

Kiln laughed. The sound of it sent shivers up and down Merila's spine. "I did say sorry about that."

Kad shrugged, but the action wasn't entirely steady. Merila noticed with the corner of her eye that his hand had drawn close to one of his blasters. "At least you didn't blast me right off." Merila dragged her feet along the floor, but Kiln yanked hard on her arm to pull her along. Again, Kad turned his brown eyes onto her face. This time, he didn't look away. "Who's the girl?"

Kiln tighten his fingers around her arm. Merila tripped and fell against him. He wrapped his other arm around her waist and let go of her arm. Tracing a gloved finger up and down her cheek, he grinned at Kad. "Just a slave we picked up from the cargo ship. Nothing special." Merila tried to twist away from his foul breath, but he gripped her waist even tighter and pulled her hard against the metal plating of his armoured chest.

Merila thought she saw Kad take a step forward, one hand reaching for his blaster. But then he stepped back, heels griding into the deck plates. _Yeah right. He wouldn't come to her rescue. He is a monster, just like the rest of them._


	7. People's Hope

Kad cursed at himself. He'd nearly given it all away. When Kiln had grabbed the girl and pulled her up against him, Kad had nearly drawn his blaster and shot him right there. It was just a lucky break he hadn't gone for his lightsaber. Kad stepped back, forcing his weight down on the deck. He needed to get out of this ship now, before he got the girl killed.

He reached out in the force, sensing how many other beings were on the ship. Twelve others on the ship, plus three in the fighters. The twelve on _Death's Revenge_ were, as far as he could tell through the force, the companions of Kiln Verskin, not other prisoners like the girl. Calculating quickly, Kad figured he could make it out of the ship's firing range before the fighter would have a chance to get a lock on him. But what about the girl?

Kiln was playing with the girl's sparse rags now, winding his hands over her body. As the girl flinched and fought to get away from him, she looked into Kad's eyes with a look of total fear and hatred. _I can't just leave her. Not with this man._ Kad grabbed his blaster and swung it up to point at Kiln's scarred face.

Kiln gasped and ducked, pulling the girl over him. Kad swept a leg out, knocking Kiln to the ground. The girl toke the chance just like he'd hoped she would and wriggled out of Kiln's arms. Kiln groped at her, trying to get her in front of him again as a shield, but she stood up and raced to the corner of the docking bay.

With his living shield gone, Kiln reached for his blaster. He'd gotten it out of his hands and raise toward Kad before Kad could stop him. Dodging blaster fire, reached toward his fighter and used the force to yank open the compartment and pull out his lightsaber. He rolled down on the deck trying to draw Kiln's line of fire away from the girl. His lightsaber landed neatly in his left and he flicked it on instinctively. The familiar hum of the weapon steadied him, calming his nerves. Getting to his feet once again, he placed himself between Kiln and the girl.

Kiln stared up at him, no longer firing. "You're as jetii" he spat in Kad's face. "Jetii scum."

"I'm more than that." Kad said as he kicked Kiln's blaster out of the man's hands. "I'm the hope for my people's future."

Kiln laughed. "You're people are dead." He reached for the blaster, but Kad stuck the blue blade just below Kiln's chin. Kiln gulped. "Dead and gone."

"You're wrong. I'm still here." Whenever he held his mother's blade, Kad was reminded of his earliest memories, playing with a stuffed bantha while she looked down at him. And his father, standing behind her, talking to her about one day having a kid of their own. The pain coming into his mother's eyes. "I'm still here and I'm not going away."

Ba'buir had explained it to him. His mother had been a Jedi, a commander who'd fallen in love with one of her clone troopers. But she won't leave the Jedi order. She'd had Kad in secret, telling no one but the trooper's Sargent, Kal Skirata. Kal had taken Kad in as a baby, raised him until they'd felt it was time to tell his father. But his mother had died shortly after that, killed in the purges. And Kad's father, the clone trooper Darman, had been stuck behind Imperial lines, separated from his only son.

Kiln was still laughing. "Why are you even wearing that armour? You're no mando'a. You're scum, aruetii. And whoever kept you alive all these years is too."

Kad felt a flash of anger. This was the traitor, lying before him on the deck. Ba'buir wasn't a traitor, Aunt Laseema wasn't a traitor, Jaing wasn't a traitor. And Uncle Bardan, who had been a Jedi but who'd left the order before the end of the Clone Wars, certainly was not a traitor. Kiln was the aruetii, not Kad or his family.

With a savage yell, Kad rammed the lightsaber blade up into Kiln's head, twisting it around with a level of hate that surprised him. Kiln fell back on to the deck, eyes staring blankly up at the metal ceiling.

Kad turned his back on the body and walked over to the corner when the girl had fled. She was weeping. When she heard him come over, she shrank back, pressing herself into the metal bulkheads. "You just killed him."

"Yeah, it's kind of what I do."

The girl, free of the death lock grip on her arm, backed away from him. "But you've got a lightsaber. Jedi are supposed to be the good guys."

She'd heard stories then, she couldn't have been old enough during the purges to really truly remember Jedi. "I'm not just a Jedi. I'm a Mandolarian."

Terror shot across her face. "You're one of them. You're a monster, like him." She pointed a shaking finger at the body of Kiln gently smoking on the floor.

"No, I'm not." Kad held out a hand to her. "Now, come with me or stay here. It's all the same to me."

Hesitantly, she grabbed his hand. He helped her to her feet, being as gentle as he could. She limped as they walked to the access hatch in the floor. Kad led, sliding around to help her climb into the small cockpit. "I'm sorry there's not more room." She didn't reply, simply curling up behind the pilot's chair. Kad closed the hatch and disconnected from the larger ship.

The other pilots weren't expecting him to escape. He powered up the jets and made a micro-hyperspace jump. When he dropped out two seconds late, he was on the other side of the star system. It was a risky move, but with the force, he could pull it off with ease.

Kad opened a comlink channel to Ba'buir. "Kad, how you doing ad'ike?" Ba'buir said without giving Kad a chance to start. "Don't tell me, you're in trouble again and need me to bail you out."

"No I got myself out. But I'm bringing someone else home with me."

"You've got room in the fighter?"

"I better have room. She's already in here with me."

"She? Our Kad's found a girl." That was Jaing, poking his head into the view screen. "What's the pretty lady's name?"

The girl spoke up from behind Kad's ear. "Merila."

Jaing stroked his chin. "Merila eh? That's a pretty name. Nice going Kad."

Ba'buir shoved Jaing out of the view of the camera. "You coming home Kad'ike or you want more time with your new lady?"

Behind him, Marila gasped. "I'm coming home Ba'buir. And she's not my lady." Off screen Kad heard Jaing chuckle.

"It'll be good to have you back ad'ike. How soon?"

"As soon as I can." With that, Kad closed the comlink channel and set the nav computer for Mandalore. It was good to be going home. Merila shuffled around in the tight space behind his chair. He hoped she would be all right until they got to Mandalore. It would be a long trip, but from there she could start a new life. Ba'buir would help her with that. "Home at last."


End file.
